This application makes reference to, incorporates the same herein, and claims all benefits accruing under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119 from an application for CUSTOMER SUPPORT SYSTEM USING INTERNET earlier filed in the Korean Industrial Property Office on the May 15, 1997, and there duly assigned Serial No. 18681/1997, a copy of which application is annexed hereto.
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a customer support system, and more particularly, to a customer support system for providing customer support services with respect to a predetermined product using an Internet.
2. Related Art
Generally, when consumer products are purchased by a consumer and are subsequently found to be defective, support service must be provided by a manufacturer to help diagnose the problems of the consumer products. The consumer products may be computer systems, software products and other consumer electronics devices. Traditionally, a service person from a centralized service center must visit the consumer""s home to repair or replace the defective products. Such a house-to-house service of consumer products requires extensive networks of service representatives, inventories and physical facilities. Moreover, support service can be very expensive and time consuming process.
A centralized service information system has since established to provide support services to a wide variety of consumer products, particularly computer systems and software products. When a customer experiences problems with a computer system or a software product, the customer typically calls a customer support line and receives assistance from a service representative, usually a customer support engineer. The customer support engineer typically asks the customer questions to help diagnose the customer""s problems and offers a proposed diagnosis and instructions to help the customer to remedy the problems. However, this service process is also slow and unsatisfactory both to the customer and the manufacturer.
In an effort to reduce product support costs and improve customer satisfaction, many customer support systems, particularly for computer systems and software products are now available xe2x80x9con-linexe2x80x9d as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,648,062 for Method For Providing An On-Line Help Facility For Interactive Information Handling Systems issued to Johnson et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,9964,077 for Method For Automatically Adjusting Help Information Displayed In An On-Line Interactive System issued to Eisen et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,287,448 for Method And Apparatus For Providing Help Information To Users Of Computers issued to Nicol et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,287,505 for On-Line Problem Management Of Remote Data Processing Systems, Using Local Problem Determination Procedures And A Centralized Database issued to Calvert et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,388,252 for System for Transparent Monitoring Of Processors In A Network With Display Of Screen Images At A Remote Station For Diagnosis By Technical Support Personnel issued to Dreste et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,455,933 for Circuit And Method For Remote Diagnosis Of Personal Computers issued to Schieve et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,678,002 for System And Method For Providing Automated Customer Support issued to Fawcett et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,694,559 for On-Line Help Method And System Utilizing Free Text Query issued to Hobson et al. Generally, on-line documentation is structured like an instruction manual with the choice of index, search, or table-of-contents access to help topics. The customer can search through headings to locate the topic appropriate for the needs of the customer. While these xe2x80x9con-linexe2x80x9d help systems advance the market quality of customer products, I believe that an improved customer service system can be installed using the popularity of Internet to ensure high level of customer satisfaction and minimize after-service cost.
Accordingly, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a customer support system for providing customer support services with respect to consumer products using an Internet.
It is also an object to provide a customer support system for providing customer support services using an Internet to reduce the number of after service requests from consumer products and to enhance the service quality of the consumer products while saving after-service costs.
These and other objects of the present invention can be achieved by a customer support system for providing customer support services with respect to a consumer products using an Internet. The customer support system may be constructed with a customer support server including a customer support engine for providing customer support services with respect to the consumer product, and a database for storing product-related support information to be used by the customer support engine; and a user computer including Internet communications device which can be connected to the customer support server through an Internet for access to the product-related support information.
The customer support engine of the customer support server may have a gate page, as a homepage of the customer support system, for providing a menu with respect to a specific client support service; and a service page for providing at least the specific client support service, including the usage guidance on a consumer product, according to a predetermined menu selected on the gate page.
The gate page may be configured with a Window name window; a tool bar window for providing a menu where an operation tool with respect to a Windows can be selected; an operation window for providing a menu with respect to at least a client support service; a screen scroll bar window for scrolling the operation window; and a Window task bar window. The service page is a service menu provided by the gate page as a support page for providing a product model guidance, the usage of various resources related to the consumer product, and technical information relating the consumer product. The service page may also have a download page for downloading a software related to the consumer product to the user computer via the Internet.
The support page may have a model menu screen unit for providing a model menu from which a product model that a user is using or desires to learn about can be selected; a specification screen unit for providing a detailed item menu of the specification of a model selected from the model menu screen and various resources related to the selected model; and a support service unit for providing the usage and technical information with respect to a detailed item selected from the detailed item menu by making access to a database storing information related to the selected product. When the consumer product is a personal computer (PC) a Windows 95 page provides Windows 95-related technical information, and the support service unit includes graphic and text information with respect to the front and rear sides of the main body of the selected PC model, a main board of the selected PC model, and a switch setting of the selected PC model.
The download page may have a model menu screen unit providing a model menu from which a product model that a user uses or wants to know can be selected; a detailed item menu output unit displaying a detailed item menu including various utilities, various drivers and bundled software which are required for a model selected on the model menu screen; and a download service unit accommodating downloading a program corresponding to a detailed item selected from the detailed item menu to the user computer via the Internet.
The service page further comprises a frequently asked question page (i.e., a FAQ page) for prewriting the answers to questions that a user frequently raises and notifying of the prepared answers; and a Windows 95 page for providing Windows 95-related technical information.
The service page has a movement menu for a direct movement between service pages if the service page is comprised of at least two service pages.
The frequently asked question page (i.e., a FAQ page) may have a model menu screen unit for providing a model menu from which the model of a product that the user is currently using or desires to learn about can be selected; a detailed item menu output unit for classifying disorders or questions felt by a user during use of a product into detailed items by models and displaying the classified detailed items, when a model is selected on the model menu screen; an inquiry content menu output unit for displaying a menu consisting of prepared inquiry contents with respect to a detailed item selected from the detailed item menu; and a question and answer service unit for providing information on answers and measures corresponding to a question selected from the inquiry content menu.
The present invention is more specifically described in the following paragraphs by reference to the drawings attached only by way of example.